WACCBIP, ORID & Partners Organise Training Workshop on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer

Participants at the Workshop

The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) in collaboration with the Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Services (TTIPS) and Capacity Development Services (CaD) teams of the Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID), University of Ghana (UG), and Intellectual Property Network, Ghana, has organised a two-day workshop for researchers, post-doctoral students, and staff of WACCBIP.

The workshop was part of the milestones on the Disbursement Linked Indicator (DLR) for entrepreneurship on a World Bank Africa Centers of Excellence project being implemented by WACCBIP. The purpose of the workshop was to provide participants with an overview of the fundamental aspects of technology transfer and commercialisation, including the University’s processes.

Dr. Peter Quarshie, the Acting Director of WACCBIP in his opening remarks, reiterated the efforts being made by UG and WACCBIP, to impact national development through cutting-edge research, and the translation of research into useful products, processes and services that would benefit businesses and society.

Mr. Richard Dua Ansah of the Intellectual Property Network explained the various types of intellectual property and associated intellectual property rights. He also explained the legal and policy framework for the commercialisation of academic inventions and highlighted the need to move away from “publish or perish” as evident in most universities, to “protect, publish and prosper”.

Mrs. Sarah Anku also of the Intellectual Property Network described the necessary requirements and procedures for obtaining intellectual property protection at the local, regional, and international levels. She further explained the role of agents in the intellectual property registration process.

Explaining the technology transfer process, Mrs. Diana Owusu Antwi, Senior Research Development Officer, ORID, stated the intellectual property ownership provisions in the UG Intellectual Property Policy, and the role of technology transfer in economic development. Her presentation also highlighted the role of ORID in leading and managing UG’s industry partnerships, intellectual property, and technology transfer initiatives. She emphasised the need for UG to make an intentional effort to enhance creativity, intellectual property generation, innovation, and technology transfer to facilitate and enhance impact of UG’s research on businesses and society. She further stressed on government’s role in introducing certain policy measures similar to the Bayh-Dole Act, and Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act, enacted to boost technology transfer in the United States of America and South Africa respectively, to promote creativity, invention, innovation and technology transfer by universities and research institutions in Ghana.

Mrs. Mammie Nyamekye Nortey, a Senior Research Development Officer at ORID engaged participants on academia-industry collaborations, including the steps to foster and establish healthy academia – industry partnerships, the benefits of these collaborations and the need to put in place adequate structures to manage these collaborations efficiently. This session also included case studies on some successful collaborations between UG and the private sector and helped to enhance the understanding of participants on how to strategically define priority areas for collaboration based on the vision and strategic direction of the parties to the collaboration, the objective of the collaboration and other factors, to derive mutually beneficial results.

Mr. Emmanuel Sackey of the Intellectual Property Network spoke about equipping researchers with the skills to conduct patent searches and use information contained in patent databases and other technical information to inform or refine their research. This is critical to prevent the reinvention of the wheel, wastage of resources, to obtain high value information for research, and to enhance commercial prospects of inventions and innovations. He also mentioned the need for universities to provide necessary support to researchers to access and use patent information.

The benefits of patenting and publication and their importance to the researcher, university and economy were highlighted. Participants were encouraged to explore protection for intellectual property prior to publication, as a prior publication or disclsoure before protection could hinder the acquisition of intellectual property rights for an invention or innovation. Mr. Sackey also spoke of the need for universities to incentivise researchers by considering intellectual property, technology transfer and impact on the promotion criteria for researchers.